Thursday, July 11, 2013

Learning Curve

This summer I've been giving Porter (sort of) daily homework to do. It's a bummer, but he needs to do it. They are little packets, and honestly if he'd just sit down and concentrate they wouldn't take him very long. But he complains and gets frustrated and belly-aches about it forever, and we end up sparring about it all day. Such is life. I haven't come up with the solution.

Today, though, he discovered an amazing technique. One that I didn't really come into until college. Cleaning as school work procrastination. I remember cleaning toilets when I should have been writing term papers. It was probably the only time I cleaned toilets, but somehow that task seemed preferable to the paper writing, and it suddenly seemed to need doing.

So Porter was struggling with the math homework (adding two two-digit numbers seems to be tripping us up), and all of a sudden he was clearing the table of breakfast dishes. And then putting away all the toys in the living room that the girls had made into their "campsite." When he got out the Windex and starting cleaning the computer desk, he looked at me like he was getting away with something. Like I didn't realize he wasn't doing his homework anymore.

I know little dude. I know. And I kind of felt like those penguins in Madagascar (if you're familiar with that sort of thing). Just smile and wave boys. Smile and wave.